Yalong Bay Golf Club might sound familiar because it's seemingly always hosting professional golf events. In 2006 alone, the course was the venue for the European Tour's TCL Classic, the Asian Tour's Crowne Plaza Open and, most recently, the Volkswagen Masters of China. There have been some good winners of the events here too - Paul Casey has won here, Johan Edfors won this year's TCL, super Thai teen Chinarat Phadungsil won the Crowne Plaza and Retief Goosen triumphed at the Volkswagen Masters. It should be added that the pros routinely rip the course apart with really low winning totals - no surprise, perhaps, because this is a resort course with little in the way of defense against the very best players. Of course, it's a bit harder for the likes of you and I specially when the wind is up, the course will be a lot tougher.

Interestingly, Yalong Bay was voted by Golf Digest (USA) as one of the top-100 courses outside of the United States. Although, in our opinion, that's a little generous - it probably has something to do with the course hosting so many professional events - it gives an idea of the overall quality of the golf here.

Although the club has a good selection of facilities, they are starting to look a bit old and could do with a revamp. Good news, then, that the club is going to start renovating the clubhouse in 2007. Definitely looking forward to when it's finished.

Very enjoyable. Not the hardest course you'll ever play - generous fairways plenty of expansive bunkering - mostly to add visual splendor than to give you a really hard time - and the appearance of water make it an attractive layout too. A good mix of holes with a couple of exciting short par-4s and a risk-reward par-5. The back nine is a little more memorable than the front.
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Yalong Bay always seems to be in very good condition - probably because they have so much practice preparing the course for the big professional events that come to town every so often.

As a resort course don't expect the greens to be lightning quick, but they're not too slow either. Fairways are also in very good shape.

Good. No gripes at all. Guangdong caddies seem to speak better English though which is strange given that Hainan is so geared up towards tourism. Perhaps I was just a bit unlucky.

An excellent place to play for holidaymakers. Relaxed atmosphere and very playable golf course makes this the ideal retreat for players of all abilities. The course, although generally flat, always manages to hold interest and the conditioning is among the best you'll find in Hainan. When the clubhouse renovations are complete its rating will be even higher. Eagle。 12/06